The Deccan Traps - India

The Deccan Traps are one of the largest volcanic provinces in the world. It
consists of more than 6,500 feet (>2,000 m) of flat-lying basalt lava flows
and covers an area of nearly 200,000 square miles (500,000 square km)
(roughly the size of the states of Washington and Oregon combined) in
west-central India. Estimates of the original area covered by the lava flows
are as high as 600,000 square miles (1.5 million square km). The volume of
basalt is estimated to be 12,275 cubic miles (512,000 cubic km).
The Deccan Traps are flood basalts similar to the Columbia River basalts of the
northwestern United States.

Early models proposed by volcanologists were that lava flooded across large areas at
extremely rapid rates. Recently proposed models suggested that at least some of
the flows are emplaced at gradual rates, lasting months to years. This photo
shows the Ajunta Caves, temples carved into the basalts.